I must say despite the fact we missed our family, this was one of the best Christmas ever! I really enjoyed the church banquet, it really helped and blessed our people too. Christmas day was nice and relaxing. After opening our gifts, Hannah made 32 plates of food to hand out to the homeless. So in the afternoon I ran around town distributing the food. The people were so happy to get something to eat. I know of one corner where about 25 homeless people live. They all lined up at my car window to get their plate.

Here is a pic of me Joseph with his glow in the dark glasses. He had a lot of fun playing with them. Aren't they cool?

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The Hondurans ring in Christmas day like they do on New Years. With a bang. At midnight the city sounds like world war III with firecrackers exploding everywhere. It's actually a lot of fun. Christmas Eve night is a bigger deal in some ways than Christmas day. They eat a big late night supper, usually with pork leg being the main meat and then at midnight they blast in Christmas day.

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I just got word today that one of our little Sunday school boys was killed in a boating accident. Saul was with his brother and aunt on a boat in one of the more remote areas of Honduras when the boat flipped and he got trapped underneath it and drowned. Due to the remoteness of the area they were unable to contact his mother. He was buried before she ever got to see him. Please remember this family at this time of grief. Saul was a very good boy and came faithfully to Sunday school. He will greatly be missed.

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I must confess, I felt a bit proud last night at our Christmas banquet. It was the first time our two churches came together. Since the second church started back in October I have been trying to work on comaradery between the two groups. They are both so different, economically, socially, worlds apart. Our first church has more middle class people. Our second church are mostly all poor people. But last night the two churches came together for a Christmas dinner and I felt like they treated each other with a lot of love and respect. It was beautiful. Our church people here took care of cooking the food and the second church took care of the drinks. We had pork leg, salad, rice and corn, rolls and a special Christmas dessert they make here called "torejas". It was soooo good. We rented a big bus to get everybody to the hall for the meal. These people were soooo excited. Especially to the poorer people this was a very special treat, they were really looking forward to this. After the meal we handed out two big fruit baskets to those who had special stickers under their seats. Boy were they all smiles when they won those. Then Hannah handed out twenty apple bread loaves that she made for each of the families at the second church. Apples are very special here at Christmas and a bit pricey, so they were very happy to get their apple bread. Hannah also plans to give out loaves to our people here and also to the neighbors. Between the two groups I think there were close to 90 people there last night. To me this is a high watermark in our ministry. I'm so thankful for how God has helped us this year. I'm looking forward to an even better year in 2009.

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To a wonderful mother and grandmother. We hope you have a very special day, full of love and joy. We miss you very much and we wish we could throw you a big party to celebrate this special day!! Hugs and kisses from us all. Happy Birthday!!

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We were privileged to have Roger Ortiz and his family come and visit this past weekend. He preached for me at our new church point as well as here at our regular church on Sunday. The place where we have been holding services on Saturday's is called "the grapes". Sadly they don't grow any grapes there but we are sowing the seed of God's word and I believe we will see a harvest of souls. After Roger's sermon two children came forward to pray and ask Jesus into their hearts. God is working there at "the grapes". These people are very humble and have very little material goods. The majority can't even read. But they have been coming faithfully each week and our hopes is to soon build a roof to meet under. So far we have never been rained out. What a miracle. Keep praying for this new outreach.

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Last Saturday was our church garage sale. As usual it was a lot of fun. The church people really worked hard. They donated lots of nice clothes, worked hard at washing clothes and pricing and even making food to sale. We sold from 8 until 6. It was very draining. We didn't sale as much this time as we did on our last sale but we still made about $200 towards our roof project. We are going to have another sale on the 20th because people get paid on the 15th. We feel that was our biggest problem, nobody had money. So all in all it was a busy but very good day. Hopefully next time we can double our sales!!

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We would appreciate your prayers for a garage sale our church people will be having all day this coming Saturday. All the money we make from this will go towards putting up a temporary shelter for our second church. We are still meeting with them on Saturdays in the open air. Thankfully we have never been rained out, but it is important that we get a roof up for them to meet under. So help us pray we can make lots of money. Our church people have donated a lot of clothes. I think they are going to work really hard, they just love garage sales!!

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This morning I was feeling a little down, today was primary elections and a lot of our people were missing from church. But nevertheless God came and helped us in the service. I preached about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. During the altar call Xumara and another lady came forward to pray. Her husband Jose had accepted Christ back in August. He has been praying for her ever since. He was so happy to see her come forward and ask Christ into her heart. Pray for this couple and their family. God has really been helping them. It turned out to be a pretty exciting Sunday.

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It's good to be back in Tegucigalpa. It was a long day of travel but we finally made it home. When we walked in the door, our Christmas tree was up and decorated and a big banner said welcome home! Last night the church people made a big welcome home meal. It was so nice. There is no place like home!

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What a nice surprise to see my uncle Gerald and aunt Sarah. They made a three and a half hour trip from Summerfield to pay us a visit. We had a good time catching up on all the news. Thanks so much for coming down!!

A group photo of our mission leaders and the missionaries present at the convention. It was a great convention.

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It has been so nice to be with Hannah's family for these few days. We celebrated an early Thanksgiving meal at Crackerbarrel and it was soooo good. We got to see Eathan for the first time. He is growing so fast and is just as cute as a button. We have had a great time.

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About

We are working in Tegucigalpa, Honduras with Hope International Missions. Our primary efforts involve church planting and discipleship. God has blessed us with three small churches, one is located at our home in the neighborhood of Tiloarque. The other church is about 15 minutes from our home in a neighborhood called Las Uvas. The third church is about an hour and a half from our home in a village called Las Delicias.
I am a graduate of Penn View Bible Institute located in Central Pennsylvania. I graduated in 2004 from the institute while I was also youth pastor at the Beavertown God's Missionary Church. I was married to Hannah Jarasat in June 2004. After spending three years as youth pastor, Hannah and I joined Hope International Missions and arrived in Honduras in 2006. We are blessed with two boys, Joseph and Daniel.